M&M Color Influence In Honey

November 8, 2012

When a baby is newly born, they say that it can see but only in shades of black and white. As the little one grows bigger, it gets attracted to more vibrant hues. Once school starts, one of the most important lessons taught are the different color schemes.

This just goes to show that colors play a big role in our lives. The same things goes with food. The more variety of colors there is, the more it is pleasing to the eyes and delicious to the taste buds. Which is why a lot of food manufacturing companies maximize this phenomenon. The holds especially true with the candy selling brands.

Imagine how successful the use of color has been for M&M's. Here's a candy that used an effective technique to lure in not just the children, but also those who are young at heart.

Everyone can pop those tiny bits of color coated chocolates right into their mouths. You can grab a random handful or choose specific colors depending on your mood.

However, it turns out that these colorful effects are not seen as pleasing to the beekeepers of France.

France is the largest producer and supplier of honey in all of Europe. Every year, it is estimated that they generate around 18,330 tons of honey. Aren’t they just the sweetest?

Anyways, according to the Alsace chamber of agriculture, there are roughly 2,400 beekeepers in their specific region who tend 35,000 colonies, producing approximately 1,000 tons of honey a year. I cannot start to imagine where honey starts and where it ends.

So then comes August of this year... About a dozen or so of the Alsace area beekeepers began to notice that the honey produced by their bees became bluish and greenish!

After an investigation, they discovered that is was due to a biogas plant of an M&M factory located nearby. The bees have been eating the residues and this contributed to the colorful end result of their honey.

According to Alain Frieh who is the president of the Apiculturists’ Union, this situation is actually a problem. Despite the attractive look and the honey like taste, the product is not salable.

Bummer. Perhaps they should add more color and ship it to the U.S. Strangely-colored ketchup was all the rage a few years ago. Maybe neon bright blue honey is next!